Evaluation - Question 4

The most important form of technology that we used was Blogger, which has been used throughout the entire construction of our project. Blogger allows us to produce ideas that can be shared and viewed by others in the group, present scripts, drafts, storyboards and our questionnaire. The blogger has a comment sections where my teacher could present feedback and improvements on the posts that I had made and I could instantly correct what was needed. We were also able to embed all of our music, so that we could save time looking for our music, as we could have it stored. 

We also used SurveyMonkey to collect our responses for our research. This allowed us to reach more people than if we had used traditional techniques. The advantages of this allows us to have much more accurate answers in terms of our surveys. We also used Wix to help design and create our website. Overall, Blogger was our main form of technology as it stored our notes and ideas in a neat form with easy access. 

The camera we decided to use was a digital camera that was incredibly lightweight, making it easy to carry around and set up. A memory stick was also inserted into the camera where all the footage would be stored. This also made it incredibly easy to transfer our footage onto a computer. On the day of the shoot, improvements were able to be made there and then, as a play back feature is installed in the camera. This allowed us to review the footage and reshoot anything we wanted to change.

One of our biggest challenges was editing the footage, as this was something not many people had done before. Furthermore, it was a digital editing software that was a new system for us to use. However after the initial use, it was relatively straight forward and easy to use, along with it being good at adding sound effects, music and putting clips together. Continuity for us was really important when filming, so that when it came to editing, it was easy to create a smooth transition between clips. Once the editing is complete and finalised, our product can put onto Youtube. Youtube was also incredibly helpful as it allowed us to use music for soundtrack and watch multiple trailers and films clips for inspiration and help. Furthermore, Youtube is a social media platform that makes sharing content extremely easy, which increases our chance of getting views and growing our audience. 

We integrated technologies, such as software like Adobe Creative Cloud, hardware, such as our camera, boom and mic, and online technologies such as Blogger and Surveymonkey.

The software we used gave us the ability to ease the process of editing the film. The trimming feature in Adobe Premiere Pro CC made it much quicker to fine cut the changing of shots. We were also to add many different transitions, such as a dissolve. We used many different transitions in between the scenes, to add to the continuity of the film. The general ease of the software gave us the ability to spend less time focusing on the film, allocating more time to other areas of the project.

The hardware gave us the ability to shoot high quality camera work, and also help to improve the potential sound quality. It has allowed for the possibility of more shots, as there is also no limit in the amount of shots we could take. We also used a manual focus lens, enabling us to help produce high quality shots.

Evaluation - Question 3

How do your products engage with the audience and how would they distributed as real media products? 

• Discuss, who, according to your survey results, your target audience is, 
• was it a mainstream or niche 
• how did you try to appeal to you audience? Using what representations and narrative devices
• if your film were a real short film, using your institution research blog post, how would it be distributed? where would it be seen and how would it be promoted?
• how would technologies be used in its distribution?

The majority of people who participated in our questionnaire/survey, were fell between the 13 and 18 age category, with a few between the age of 18 to 24. Furthermore, we had an even mix of male and female participants. One of the questions asked was “preferred genre of film”. The top three answers were comedy, action and then thriller, which we found to be surprising. Due to our findings, we thought of adding a few ‘action’ moments, to try accommodate more people, whilst sticking to our overall genre of thriller. However, this was not possible and we decided it was best to stick with our original idea. Another question asked in the survey was  “preferred ending to a film”, to which 'plot twist’ came first with over half of a majority vote. This made it clear that our ending needed to be a plot twist, which no one could predict or see coming. Because of the complexity of the plot and the twist ending, we believed it could be difficult for younger viewers to understand. Therefore, our target audience would be between fifteen and thirty. Furthermore, our target audience would be a Niche market. Even though this tends to attract a smaller audience, it is easier to cater for a smaller crowd, as well as targeting a specific sub group of people, who are likely to appreciate the content of the film. 

I would consider this to be a small productional budget with little profit potential, as well as a very small cast and crew. Therefore, I think this production would work best as a independent media institution and we would distribute our Media in places such as Warp Films, which are a British based production company who produce independent films for specific audiences. They produce films that revolve around British issues and challenge a certain subject matter, which is why I think our film would suit being produced by an independent procuration company. In order to receive the most amount of promotion, our short film would ideally be played in a cinema, during the trailer section before a film starts. Although this is quite unlikely, many people have seen short films because of something like that happening similarly to them. It would be more realistic for our film could be represented in places like the ‘London Short Film Festival’ in order to increase our potential distributors and gain a wider appeal for our film. As mentioned previously, our production budget would be small, so the levels of promotion are limited. However, as previously mentioned, the power of social media is great in getting engagement and promotion due to how easy it is to share on all the various social media platforms. Our main reliant would be ‘Word of Mouth’ which is the strongest form of marketing as well as our website to create further awareness of our film, presenting information about the cast and crew and the behind the scenes to get the audience more prepared.

Evaluation - Question 2

Evaluation - Question 1 - Part 2

Evaluation - Question 1 - Part 1

My Role

My role in this production was the sound. I held a boom pole over the characters in the scene. This may sound quite easy but the pole was quite heavy and I had to make sure not to go too low down or high up, to get the precise sound that we want. I used other sound to edit into the film such as background music as non-digetic sound to emphasise a stressful and suspenseful atmosphere in the scene. For the evaluation I did question 1 and helped with the other questions as I was very passionate about this production. I am extremely happy with the end result as all the work and research into this short film has felt paid off by the work we have all created. 

Mind Map Final Cut

Website

https://katepignatelli.wixsite.com/mindmap

Postcard

The front side of our postcard:

The back of our postcard:

Second rough cut of our film

This is a second rough cut of mind map. The transition between scenes are much more smoother and the flashback at the end has been changed into black and white. Sounds have been edited out that were not meant to be there and it overall looks like a much better film. A few tweaks could happen but overall I am happy with this cut of the film.

Rough cut of our Film

This is a rough cut of our film Mind Map. It is over 8 minutes long and has some bits that need to be corrected. There is parts where the sound is too loud or my voice can be heard in scenes that it is meant to be silent. The move into another scene should be smooth and provide continuity, however this cut is a bit messy and choppy. The ending should have some credits and potentially some music.

Edited Log Sheet

The edited log sheet was my group going through each shot taken and seeing if they are good to be used in the making of the film. On the far left it is the clip name so it can be quickly found later when it needs to be used. The second to the left box showed which scene the take was from and the amount of takes. The middle box was a brief description explaining what happened in that clip to be able to remember exactly what happened in that clip without having to re-watch it later on. The box on the second to the right shows how good or bad the clip was on a rating scale of up to three stars. If there is a "NG" it means that the clip is just unusable, for example the actor breaks character and laughs or a line is forgotten. The far right box is an explanation of why that clip was so good or so bad.  If this: "/" appears it means that the box is the same as the one before, usually meaning it is from the same clip with the same thing happening just another take is being done. This is one of the longer processes of the making of the film as some clips are re-watched multiple times in order to see if it is really worthy of being in the film.

Shot List

This is a step by step shot list. This was found to be very useful on the day of filming as this gave us a clear instruction of how we wanted to film to look like and how we were going to do it.

We listed each scene and listed each shot within that scene. In each shot we showed what camera angle we wanted, which gave us a good insight of how much we will be able to show on screen. In each shot we showed which action we wanted happening so for example, our first shot was going to be a camera angle that was a medium close up that would be inside the a cupboard that will show Jess opening and closing the doors.

We also included side notes that explained little extras such as a location. For example when explaining a scene we made a note of it being in a therapists office or for the actress to ignore a certain thing happening in the scene. 

Scene step by step outline

This is an extended step outline sheet that shows what happens in each scene. Instead of a take by take outline, it shows all that is going to happen in that scene. Providing a much bigger view of the final product. It states exactly which character will be in each scene as well as the location and time frame of the scene. If the time of day is morning, then a bright scene should be shown maybe near windows to provide a daylight feeling to it. As well as the main objective of that scene so for example scene one is Jess (the main character) is introduced and the most important point of the scene is to show that Jess lives alone by having Jess lock the door behind her when she leaves the house. A relatively detailed description of the scene helps show what will happen and how we should angle each shot.

Story board

Below is a story board I made. I drew out little pictures of how we imagine the scene would look like frame by frame. This is for when we make the film, it is going to be easier to shoot the exact way I want as I can relate it back to the imagine. It is also useful to see how the film will look like as this gives a more useful way of imagining it. There is also brief descriptions of each picture to help put more of a background to the image so it can be understood better.

Drafting Ideas

This is when my group and I began drafting ideas for the story and the layout of it. This allowed everyone to present their ideas and for everyone to explain their thoughts on each scenario. The story did change multiple times until everyone was happy with the finale product. We wanted to have a brief description and a rough idea of how each scene will go.

The group also came up with back up stories incase the one we were going to go with seemed too far fetched or unable to be filmed. We had an idea about a women with dementia and the affects it were to have on her family, or with a man with depression compared with a man who is happy with his life, to show how they viewed the world so differently but seemed the exact same. As dementia and male depression are quite new topics that have been brought up and made aware of it could be too sensitive for some people and may not be received the right way. We thought our safest bet was to go with our story that was quite exciting and unusual with the only slightest bit of realism in there to prevent it seeming to far fetched but not too personal.